Guardian of the Angels
by Arkytal
Summary: Back in the world of the living, Kanade and her other half are being watched over by their Guardian. But why do Angels need Guardians in the first place?
1. Doesn't Hurt To Be Prepared

Guardian of the Angels

**A/N: Hello all, back with another random story that's not The Library. I'm sorry, it's just that that chapter is so...(taboo, I think the word would be?), even I'm having trouble with writing it. And that's saying something. It's at like 2,000 words, but I'm wracking my brains so I don't screw it up. It's only being delayed out of love, I promise!**

**-Anyways, hope you enjoy the story, and if you like, leave a review!**

Just another day in school, learning what the world told us needed to be learned, doing what the world made us do. Of course, no one dared question it; it had been like this since time immemorial, right? Why change it?

Of course, I wasn't upset with the system, per se. It just frowned upon being anything outside of the norm.

So being a sub-organic creature who can flit between the realms of the living and the dead made it pretty hard to fit in. I made do, of course. Whenever I came upon a new school, which was pretty often, owing to my role in the world, I would always introduce myself as a computer geek. It turned most people away from looking into my profile any longer than they had to, and it allowed me to carry my equipment with me without drawing unwanted attention.

I was supposed to escort Angels through life to allow them safe passage into the world of the dead. It was an interesting job, to say the least. I've been doing it for humans for almost four centuries. It's a curious relationship, myself and the Angels.

Angels are simply humans that are gifted with abilities that often transcend the limits of reality and cross over into my kind's plane of existence. When that occurs, we are sent out to guide these humans until their death, and upon their death, await their eventual rebirth.

Of course, we could follow them into the realm of the dead, but that plane is pockets of matter, surrounded by light years of void emptiness on all sides. Simply finding a single person or a few persons would take years, and by that point it would be safe to say they had been rebirthed.

Like my charges have been, and why I'm currently seated in a high school classroom pretending that I don't know every detail of World War II, and why Japan lost. But that is neither here nor there.

My charge from the last life has gained an identical twin sister for this round in the world of the living. She is also an Angel, leading me to believe that something occurred in the afterlife that caused her creation. It's not often when an additional Angel appears so close to the first. Almost unheard of, in fact.

Anyways, they were going to be attending classes in this school, so I manipulated a few temporal variables and inserted myself into the class roster of the class they would be assigned to.

I kept a similar opinion to the appearance she had known me as in the last life, so hopefully that would strike a chord with her subconscious and at least make her initiate first contact. As a general rule, we were not allowed to interact with our assigned Angels unless they did so first, after which it was fine.

I sense them arriving. My oh my, the new Angel's presence feels...similar, somehow, to the first. Well, they _are _identical twins, but still. This was different.

"Class, I'd like to introduce two new students who will be attending Nakamura High starting today." The teacher stood and announced, before heading to the door, where a small amount of white could be seen in the window. Same as ever.

The short, silver-white haired girls that walked in did not surprise me one bit, and even caused me to chuckle a bit, though I kept that quiet. The first Angel was obvious, carrying herself with an air of elegance, her yellow eyes scanning the room like a cat identifying how to best engage a piece of food. Her eyes stayed on me for a fraction of a second longer than anyone else, and I knew she had made some sort of connection, whether she consciously knew it or not.

Her twin, on the other hand, was completely different, despite being the same physically. Her eyes were bright red, and shone with an off putting sheen, almost as though she was planning to murder everyone in the room.

Her mannerisms, however, were quite the opposite. Her mouth was kept in the same indifferent style as her sister's, but instead of looking stoic and commanding, it gave the girl a distraught and afraid look. She kept her hands together behind her back, and looked to be attempting to make herself seem as small as possible, which wasn't hard, when she wasn't much taller than a small child in the first place.

Her throat is what drew me in, however. She had scars on her throat, red against her milky white skin. Long, thin, and red, there was no doubt as to what it was.

The first Angel spoke to the class, her tone of voice the same emotionless, cold, calculating voice as I had remembered it. Well, except for the fact that she wasn't on a hospital bed, this time.

"Hello, everyone, my name is Kanade Tachibana." She gestured to her sister, who waved meekly with one hand upon being addressed. She didn't look anyone in the eyes, either, preferring to stare at the intricate patterns that tile floors create.

"This is my twin sister, Kaede. She is mute, and if anyone attempts to make life difficult for her, they will be punished accordingly." That monotone is music to my ears, it really is. I can even hope that someone tries to mess with the twin...Kaede, she said? I hope someone messes with her; I've been missing out on some decapitations these past few years of sliding among the parallel existences of the world as we know it.

Ah, that's right; she most likely has no knowledge of her abilities at the current point. Alas, it will have to wait.

"Please take a seat anywhere there are open seats." The teacher gestured vaguely at the half-empty classroom. It was an advanced class, so there were many empty seats.

And yet, Kanade chose to sit next to me, and Kaede sat to the right of her twin. Maybe she does recognize me? If she does so, and consciously, this will be _really _awkward to explain.

I can't exactly walk up to her after class and say "Hey, I was the doctor who pulled the plug on you in your last life."

It would probably cause just a _teeny _bit of friction between us. Nothing serious, though...

You can hear the sarcasm, right? Okay, just making sure.


	2. Purpose, Undefined

Guardian of the Angels

Chapter 2: Purpose, Undefined

Class went along smoothly enough, outside of the looks being thrown at the girls by, well, everyone. Kaede was indeed incapable of speaking, but she possessed two methods with which to get around these disabilities.

The first was sign language. She signed a question to Kanade, and she quickly whispered the answer back in a hushed tone. How do I know sign language? I've been around for several of your lifetimes, don't forget, and I do have an interest in learning.

Anyways, when a question or concept is too complicated or difficult to put into signs, she uses a small tablet computer that sits on her desk. She is an incredibly fast typist, displaying multiple lines of text on the device within seconds. For these, she would pass Kanade the tablet, who would type her reply back onto it, and pass it back. From what I could see, these questions had little or nothing to do with the subject matter currently being taught.

The most recent time they passed the device between them, I used some of my special "abilities" to see the entirety of what was being displayed.

It was a hypothetical question concerning cutting objects with blades that were only a picometer wide.

That's not something you see every day, but the response from Kanade was filled with complex graphs and references to several scientific journals.

My, my, these girls are just full of surprises.

...

After the lunch bell rang, I exited the room with the rest of the students, heading down to the lunchroom to purchase the same lunch I ate every day. It was funny, really. It was an old favorite introduced to me by none other than Kanade herself.

As I sat down at my preferred table, in the far corner of the lunchroom, with my bowl of mapo tofu and my laptop, I saw the Angels enter the lunchroom from the entrance nearest to me. Well, at this point, it is more accurate to call them the Angel and her sister, but I'll eat my shoe if that girl isn't an Angel as well.

The girls looked around the lunchroom as I opened up my "laptop" and began navigating through menus and entering information into the correct dialog boxes.

Sure, it was a desktop replacement laptop on the outside, but it's actually my link to the Guardians residing back home in the Plane of Solitude. It functions like a laptop, but because of that connection, I can send my reports back to the ruling Guardians concerning the arrival of the Angel I preside over, as well as any additional information about the situation.

In past times, I had to send these reports manually with pen and paper, but since the humans finally caught on with computer technology, no doubt leaked to them by an errant Guardian, I have been able to send these reports electronically.

"...Your mapo tofu is going to get cold if you don't eat it." I had been so intent on looking at the screen and entering the data necessary that I had developed a terrible case of tunnel vision and had failed to see the two girls standing in front of the table, both holding steaming bowls of food.

I stuttered for a few seconds before I was able to correct myself.

"I-I-I-I-I was going to, not to worry! I just had to write a few dozen something or others' in my laptop..."

Both of them raised their left eyebrow at the same time, and I almost laughed despite myself. They were still standing, looking at me, before Kanade gestured to the mostly-empty table.

"Do you mind if we sit here? The other students don't seem to take very kindly to us, for some reason..."

I nodded, not only in confirmation of her request, but also in the other student's distaste for them.

You see, Angels are different from humans because of the energies around them that are present in all living things and everything in every realm, plane, and dimension of existence. The energies an Angel emits and absorbs are able to be controlled by said Angel. Controlling this temporal energy allows an Angel to wield a variety of enhancements and abilities far surpassing any human 'magic', which is a mere mockery of this type of power.

But how does this affect a normal human's perception of an Angel? They can still feel _something _different about an Angel, and in most cases, this constant energy exchange occurring around an Angel puts normal humans in a negative disposition. They can feel the energies passing through them, around them, and everywhere, because an Angel's subconscious manipulation of that energy causes different movements than naturally occurring energy.

As they sat down to eat, I noticed their meals were not identical, as I had half-suspected them to be.

Kanade was eating mapo tofu, as to be expected, but the other girl, Kaede, was eating miso ramen slowly, her Adam's Apple bobbing noticeably when she swallowed.

"So why do you like mapo tofu? It's not a very popular dish; I was pleasantly surprised to discover this school even offers it."

Kanade was making small talk after I had finally closed my computer after finishing my report and turning my attention to my food.

I couldn't reveal anything just yet. Well, I _could, _in theory, but that would make a lot of people mad. Important people, high ranking Guardian people. So I played it safe, in a witty sort of way. I stirred the thick red tofu before taking another bite, savoring the intense fire it created in my mouth.

"A friend got me hooked on it a long time ago. She isn't around anymore though...anyone who eats it is a friend in my book, because they remind me of her." More flashes of recognition showed on her face, but none of it was conscious; she might have thrown the bowl of scalding hot, delicious tofu at my head if it had.

"...I see." She was never one for many words, and she continued eating without making a sound. Kaede made a few coughing sounds throughout the lunch period, and constantly rubbed her throat, which after a while I could not help but stare at.

She saw me staring and poked Kanade as she finished her bowls' last dregs. She signed something with wide sweeping signs, but after a millisecond I determined them to not be of the same sign language that I was versed in. Perhaps it was a code of their own creation.

"You were staring at Kaede's scars." Her voice hadn't risen in volume, nor in tone. But it wasn't a question; it was a statement. Both sets of bright eyes were on me, and feeling slightly put off by this coordinated assault of blank, dead looks, I just nodded.

"I'm just curious as to how she got them. Judging from the size and shape of them, she wasn't born with them, right?." Kaede looked to her sister, before back at me, and nodded.

"So what harm is there in telling me? I'm just as much of an outcast as you are, so who am I going to tell?" Kanade looked around the room quickly, her silver hair swishing slightly as she did so, but her worries were unfounded: we were in a secluded corner of the lunchroom, made even more secluded by the attitude of those around us.

She sighed, before moving her bowl away from her and setting her hands on the table, folded neatly.

"Alright, I tell you a little bit about it, but only because Kaede doesn't see any harm in it, and because you're the first friendly person we've met in this school." Probably the last, girls, probably the last. If we're lucky.

She pressed her index fingers together, before sighing and fixing the lace on her white uniform. Then she gave me a deathly serious look.

"I don't expect you to believe most of this, but this is what happened."

Kaede shuddered and her hands went to her throat. That traumatizing, huh? I need to know, more out of my human body's desire to know than my own requirement to obtain this nugget of information.

"Well, about six or so months ago, we were going back to our apartment after school. We had been attending a school far away from our parents, who are always away on business, but they paid for a studio apartment close by where the school was located.

It was shortly after dusk when we were walking down the side street our apartment was on. The lights were on in our third floor apartment as we approached, which struck us as odd, because we always made sure to turn them off before leaving in the morning.

Entering the building and beginning to climb the stairs, we heard voices coming from our apartment. It turned out to be a pair of thieves, but we didn't know this at the time. We rushed into our apartment to see them going through the jewelry box in our living room.

Kaede rushed at the one who was putting a pair of diamond necklaces our mother had given to us long ago, but he pulled out a knife and, well...

He sliced upwards and caught her throat, giving her one cut. She fell to the ground and they fled out the window when they saw the pool of blood on the floor. I called the police and the ambulance, but the police never responded.

Kaede almost bled out in the hospital, and the other scar on her throat is from when the doctors were sewing her throat up; it's actually a line of interlocking stitches that keep her jugular from falling out.

A week after Kaede was discharged our parents were informed, and promptly moved us to a different city, almost 6 hours away from that apartment. They attempted to find the assailants, but were unsuccessful in doing so.

"So now we're here." She finished with...finality, and I couldn't detect any lies in that retelling, which was shocking to say the least.

Not that she would have any reason to lie, except to protect themselves. But they did not; still as truthful as ever...at least, Kanade was.

The rest of the lunch period was quiet, as I finally tucked into my own meal, savoring the intense spice and the delectable aftertaste. Humans do have the sense of taste, after all.

**A/N: Wow, what a crazy coincidence! Guest reviewer Truna said that people still read this, and later on today, I stumbled upon this chapter in my Google Drive while scrolling through my writings, and decided to finish it/ continue to work on it; it's one of many stories that I've started and never continued, and one of 2 that I haven't ended up deleting after 1 chapter: The other being Team Beats! 2, but that's staying on hiatus for a while yet. **

**So thank you Truna, and may I say that you should totally just make an account, so I can talk to you via PM? Saying this in an author's note is weird.**

**Ciao~ **


	3. Parameters Nullified

Guardian of the Angels

3: Parameters Nullified

**A/N: Hello again! It's been less than 2 days but I had little to nothing to do this weekend, and really pounded this out, and checked it over several times to make sure that this won't conflict with any of the later chapters, or even really conflict with the canon events. Don't expect every update to be this quick, but I'm adding this to my writing rotation, now that I'm distraction-free for a few weeks, at least. **

**Also, thank you to X-Blaze99 for reviewing, and for asking a question that ultimately led to one of my new directions I'm taking this in. So again, thank you! **

**In any case, hope you enjoy the chapter.**

"Are you sure that his relation to them won't interfere with the operation?" Tall, pale, white, and virtually featureless, lacking any features besides large, frosty blue eyes, the aide eyed his superior, speaking telepathically.

The identical-in-appearance figure blinked once, and all understanding and information regarding the subject was transferred, while a stream of sounds comprised of words made its' way into the former's consciousness.

"Of course. In fact, this may speed up the progression of the transversal of roles in their lives. You see, the one he is paired to is special, in ways too numerous to list. Her time on the Other Side saw her developing powers that rival our own, and while she didn't manage to escape the Other Side in an unnatural way, she did manage to do something that had unforeseen-until now-side effects.

She created new life, in a space that was previously thought to be only the interim point between the endpoint of an important individual's life, and the beginning of their next run through the living state of their soul.

By doing so, she shattered a great deal of the theories we had held in high esteem concerning the way the Other Side works. Of course, since we cannot enter the Other Side physically, all points about what may lie there are moot.

In all actuality, we are only aware that life was created there because of the girl's conditions for living in her current life, after exiting the Other Side. She was born to a twin, whose soul is an identical copy to her own; the only differences are their prime directives. The original is destined to be of monumental importance to both the world of the living, ourselves, and the Others. The copy, however, has a completely blank prime directive. No data fills that space whatsoever, meaning that while she is still a human being, and while go through the cycle like any other, she will not be affected by anything involving luck, because to her, luck does not exist.

For example, according to one set of calculations put forth, if she were to open Schrodinger's Box, she would not find anything inside. To a normal person, there would either be a live cat or a dead cat, but since this is based entirely on luck, her soul's blankness would nullify the existence of the cat, giving her the static result of nothing.

Or, if the a different set of calculations brought forth by a differing school of thought are correct, the results of the box would be indicated by her conscious mood. In that case, if she were in a positive mood at the time, she would open the box to find a live cat; if she were sad or angry, or otherwise in a negative disposition, she would open the box to find the animal inside, dead. So many different outcomes could change everything, but as has been examined thus far, her emotional state is firmly tied to the original's, so she will be relatively stable."

After what seemed like ages, but may have been no time at all, the aide blinked, sending his response back to to the figure who was now busying himself with tinkering with a complex mechanical device with all of his spindly, tentacle-like fingers, offering many more degrees of freedom than what human appendages allow.

"Yes, I was briefed on that information by the theoretical analysts. But what of the Guardian in the field with them? That is where I believe the problem lies. That particular Guardian may have developed an emotional attachment to the girl in the stage of life in which she was just a normal person. Now that this Guardian is watching over them, there may be some unforeseen side effects of this."

The tinkering of the device slowed, as the other contemplated this view.

"That may be true, but we will deal with any other consequences that come forth in due time, if they ever come to pass. That Guardian has an unsurpassed efficiency rate in successful guidings; there has not been a single failure yet, and it has been nearly half a millenium in the world of the living. That is something quite impressive, and something not even myself managed when I still took out guidings for those of importance. Do not underestimate the powers of subject Number 121, nor her handler. Not everything is known about this situation, as of yet, but when they are discovered, our very way of life could change. Our duty is to ensure that it is for the better, and not a turn of events that results in the destruction of our people."

No contemplation this time, the ade understood exactly what was being referred to.

"They are the key to..."

"Yes. Now leave, I am sure that you have many tasks to attend to, as do I. Farewell."

"Likewise."

...

Oh boy, English class. I never particularly liked the language, and while being a Guardian, I had a natural grasp of all languages humans spoke, in order to gain fluency in any of them, I still had to study them to a certain extent. The Asian languages were closest to our own, but far and away from the flowing structures of our tongue were the Germanic languages; they were hard, unnatural sounding, and in general made a mess of pronunciation.

Of course, Kanade was excellent at it, and Kaede was allowed to skip the majority of the class work, only doing the worksheets we were assigned. As to be expected, the two had different writing styles in English lettering; Kanade wrote in cursive script, as elegant as ever. Kaede was a smorgasbord of various elements of styles; some letters were jagged and rough, others were elegant and curved, still others were slanted one way, some the other. She was a jack of all trades, writing much more quickly than anyone else in the class, almost outpacing myself, but her neatness was...subpar, to say the least.

"Alright class, who can read the third paragraph from the top? You there, in the back, looking like you're stealing a nap behind your book." Ah crap, for once, the instructor had called on me. I calmly stood up without picking up my book, because my laptop had been open behind it. What can I say, I do my best to do my worst; if I did all my work, I would have a perfect average. No, I'm just a lazy genius to these humans. It's better that way. They wouldn't be able to handle the truth.

"Pick up your book." I flashed a smug look at the teacher, who seemed only mildly disgruntled by my aloofness. A shame, to be sure. This guy doesn't care enough to make it fun for me. Well, at least I tried.

"I don't need it." Beginning from the middle of the mental photograph I had developed from the page, I began to recite the ugly language, stumbling only once. Guttural-sounding city names, who the hell does shit like that? Wait. Russian...Communists, while having one of the best ideas about how a government should be run, are just terrible at doing it right, and their language is one of the most grating, for me. Right behind English, funnily enough. Human nature is terrible sometimes...glad I'm not human. Ah yes, the reciting of funny Russian people in English. You win this time, public school systems!

Not to disrespect humans, of course; I still prefer their presence to that of my own kind. Maybe that's what happens when you're away from home for too long...

"For some, the way of life brought about by this new government was less than great. These 'heretics', as branded by their leaders, were rounded up and killed. The city of...Volgograd, was renamed Stalingrad in honor of their 'great' leader, Josef Stalin. After the end of Stalin's reign and the reversal of many of his decrees, the Soviets changed the name of the city back to Volgograd in 1961."

The class seemed shocked that I recited the whole string without looking down at my "book"; my laptop still whirred from behind the book. Well, most of it, anyways; Kanade was looking back with a wry smile, and Kaede hadn't noticed at all, as she was reading an article on her small computer. How odd. I had expected her to at least acknowledge my outward actions, but then again, it may have to do with her...unique...position. Yes, that's it.

"...Alright then, very good. You can sit down now." The instructor just seemed exasperated, but that was to be expected; I had obviously appeared to be slacking off, but in his attempt to spite me, it had backfired. Am I not allowed this little bit of fun?

I sat down promptly, going back to inputting data as I collected it, filling tables and graphs with my calculations about what was going to happen in the coming weeks, concerning these two, at least.

Their energies were quite different from what I had encountered during Kanade's last life, and Kaede's followed a pattern that had only been encountered once before, and only through tracing back residual signatures collected from point-of-death's of thousands of those who entered The Other Side; The Programmer.

This didn't mean that _she _was The Programmer; after all, it had been confirmed that he was male, and Kaede was quite obviously _not _a male. It could mean nothing at all, or, as the chances of that were quite slim, it meant she was just as important as he had been. Too bad we don't know how, just yet.

In any case, that makes her more important than ever to watch over and keep safe. Any number of terrible things could happen if The Others got hold of her; they would sense her similarity to The Programmer, and no one really knows what would happen next. Regardless, it would no doubt be disastrous. A cataclysmic event, even.

But I'm the best in the business, so we have nothing to worry about...hopefully.

...

With the last bell, I packed up my book and computer into my bag, walking over to where the two arctic-silver-haired girls were doing the same. Kanade was faster, having here slingbag on her back by the time Kaede was getting up to put her notebooks in her own bag.

"I trust you've had a decent first day?" As everyone else left, I felt a few disapproving glances in my direction, but it was most likely just hopeless romantics thinking I was trying to, quote un-quote, "get it in". No such thing, fortunately. I've much more important activities to engage in then attempting to replicate human sexual interactions.

"Well, other than meeting you and eating mapo tofu, not particularly. The people here aren't the nicest, and while it's not any worse than our previous schools, to get the cold shoulder everywhere you go isn't a good feeling to get accustomed to." Wow, that's the longest sentence I've heard her say in...well, ever, really.

Kaede set her slate on the nearest desk, typing out her response in a few seconds, while Kanade was talking. She held it up for us to see when Kanade was finishing.

'They don't tolerate my disability, and I don't think they'll like us any more when I can talk again (5-7mo.)'

Kanade nodded, before gesturing around us in the now-empty room.

"There's something slightly more inviting about this place, though...I can't really place it, but it almost feels like someone is watching over us."

Well, hell, I think they might be slightly more perceptive than I had previously thought. My energy must radiate enough for them to detect it, but it's masked enough to prevent them from pinpointing me as the source. Still, that's intriguing; I didn't expect any powers that manifested on The Other Side to become active so quickly, or for them to retain any of those in the first place. That was certainly a fact that needed to be brought to the attention of my superiors.

We would need to attempt to prevent any outbursts or accidental activations of these abilities...I can imagine the crisis that would emerge if either of them accidentally activated their passive abilities, mainly OverDrive, or the one that has only come out in reports as "Pulverise", which didn't sound very inviting. _That _would incite quite the interesting conversation.

OverDrive was an ability that we had had access to for millennia, but somehow they had gained access to it, along with some other low-level abilities.

Hm, good thing I can think at an exponential speed compared to humans, otherwise I might make some awkward silences for them.

"So, shall we be off, then?" They nodded, and we gathered our things and left the room. I led the way out of the school, which was quite large and consisted of multiple buildings, but as I did so, I noticed flashes of recognition on their faces.

Was it the people? Was it the location itself? Something her was a recurring theme to them, possibly something they had encountered on The Other Side...and we wouldn't have any information on that, as such, and that worried me slightly.

I would have to formulate a more in-depth report to send to my superiors tonight, once I made it back to my apartment.

"So where are you two staying, if you don't mind me asking?" As we neared the gates to the school, I jolted the both of them out of their trance-like states'.

"...We live in an apartment complex a few blocks away from here. Likewise, where are you staying?" She almost made it sound accusatory, which was odd. Or maybe she didn't, and I was just throwing things into the air because I thought they were defying expectations, once again. But at this point, that was to be..._expected_. Heh, I made a joke. That was a human joke, right? I'm not too good at those things. Never have been.

"I'm also in an apartment a little ways from here. Is the landlord the kindly old lady Nana?" Their faces surprise told me it was.

"So we're neighbors; isn't that cool? Can that be another excuse to maybe get to know each other a little bit better?" I said something wrong, because Kanade's eyes gave me a look that I could feel the cold emanating from.

"If that was an attempt to hit on me, then you're looking in the wrong place." Ahhh, they were thinking that I, being a guy, was only being nice because I think with my endocrine system.

I was only slightly confused by this, but could understand this as well. If I were a human, I would most likely be _more _distrustful of the opposite gender than the average person...

"No, not at all! I'm taken already, for one. I was just asking because you seem like you're cool people, and the first intelligent conversation I've had in awhile. I don't have many friends, and you two don't seem to have any, so I'm just extending the hand of friendship, that's all." That was only technically a lie. I had caught an Other that had been hiding in the world of the living, and as I had became her new Master, I could instruct her to act like a significant other if need be. Currently, she was in the form of a middle-aged woman, posing as my "mother", and maintaining my living space. However, she could switch into another form at any time, so it would be no trouble at all for her to appear to be my 'partner'

She seemed taken aback by this statement, and she remained silent s we began to walk down the street, intent on the same destination.

Of course, it had been arranged previously that we would be in the same apartment complex; in fact, ours were right next to each other, separated only by a single wall. I needed to be on hand in case _something _happened.

As we finally neared the building, she finally spoke.

"I'm...sorry. It's just that no one has ever really been...nice to us, except for their own gain...so, thank you." She seemed to be hiding her face, but using my powers to see past the veil of silver, I saw that she was blushing profusely.

Awwwwww.

"It's no big deal, really. I just know better than to mistreat a couple of nice girls like yourself." She blushed even harder, but this time, didn't try to hide it.

"Thank you so much...we never received your name, actually." Totally intentional, because I'm worried that it might spur some memories forth, given the sparse information we've gathered about who exactly might have been on The Other Side with them. Actually, I don't think that should matter, because in all actuality, I had never existed to The Others, as I had never been there in the first place. Guardians and Others generally don't enter into each others home territory; the world of the living is fair game, however.

"Sorry about that, my name is Hayato Naoi."

**A/N: Yup. I went there. It's going to take a lot of explaining, but believe me, it works. To clarify, "The Other Side" is the Afterlife and "The Others" are NPCs.**


End file.
